Manisha in doubles final

NEW DELHI, JUNE 16. Manisha Malhotra made it to the final of the doubles event with Leanne Baker of New Zealand in the $50,000 ITF women's circuit tennis tournament in Marseille, France.

The pair defeated fourth-seeded Maria Elena Camerin of Italy and Antoaneta Pandjerova of Bulgaria 6-2, 6-4 after beating the top- seeded Laurence Courtois of Belgium and Emanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. In the first round, Manisha and Leanne beat Severin Beltrame and Sophie Lefevre of France 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Interestingly, it was a last-minute decision of Manisha and Leanne to compete in France, as they could not get entry into a bigger tournament in Birmingham. Manisha and Leanne had lost in the first round of the $25,000 tournament in Surbiton last week, losing to qualifiers Kristina Brandi of the U.S. and Evie Dominikovic of Australia 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 6-7 (3-7).

Manisha was beaten in the second round of the qualifying event in singles, losing 2-6, 2-6 to Amanda Grahame of Australia after defeating Yvonne Doyle of Ireland 6-3, 0-6, 6-4 in the first round.

Wild cards for Surabhi Rati and Deepa

NEW DELHI, JUNE 16. Surabhi Singh, Rati Kumar and Deepa Chakraborty have been given the wild cards for the third leg of the ITF women's circuit tennis tournament to be held at the DLTA Complex here from Monday.

Four other players, Naina Karsolia, Karishma Patel, Nandini Perumal and Sricharanya Thiagarajan also made it into the main draw with virtual wild cards. In a draw of 16, the four got bye in the only qualifying round. The four matches in the qualifying event, featuring one foreigner, Amanda Parson Siegel of Denmark, will be held on Sunday.

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